The Radziwiłł Mausoleum
in Nesvizh.
Research

In Soviet Lithuania the interest again was focused (Lithuania. In the period of Romanticism; Lithuania. Interwar) on the burial monuments. This time, however, handling of the crypts and the remains, as well as their commemoration, rather than their scientific research became the focus of attention.”

In 1944, the remains housed in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius were severely affected when the Nazi government of Germany decided to use the vaults of the church as a bomb shelter. In the Soviet period it was said that there were a lot of mummified remains there. Due to numerous bones and “dried up corpses” this place was called Vilnius Hades¹Jonas Bulota, Romas Šalūga, Vilniaus požemiuose, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla, 1960, p. 34.. Another contemporary expressed his impression in the following way: “A dreadful picture opens in the vaults.”²Juozas Maceika, Vadovas po Vilnių, Vilnius, Vilnius: Valstybinė politinės ir mokslinės literatūros leidykla, 1960, p.176-179. Between the 1940s and the 1950s it was decided to establish an atheistic “inquisition museum”2 there. For that reason the remains were frequently moved from one place to another, which did a great damage to them. True, before the establishment of the “museum”, in 1963-1964, the investigations of the vaults of the church were carried out. The archaeologist Vytautas Daugudis conducted the investigations and the forensic physician Juozas Albinas Markulis recorded 474 remains of adults and 85 remains of children discovered there³Vytautas Daugudis, Vilniaus dominikonų (Šv. Dvasios) bažnyčios rūsiuose 1963–1964 m. vestų archeologinių kasinėjimų ataskaita: [the manuscript; preserved at the Library of Lithuanian Institute of History, f. 1, b. 180].. Today these investigations are considered to be the first complex research of the mummified remains buried in the crypts in Lithuania⁴Dario Piombino-Mascali, et al., “The Lithuanian Mummy Project: A Historical Introduction”, Lietuvos archeologija, 2015, vol. 41, p. 136..

In 1967, the investigations4 of the remnants of the church in Chistye Prudy (Чистые Пруды; Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia; the church was demolished in 1950) were carried out. This place is related to Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780), a classic of Lithuanian literature. He was a priest in the church and was buried there. One of the aims of the investigation was to find the remains of the writer. To achieve this aim, a commission consisting of specialists in various fields was set up. The remains of several people were found in the church. The remains, “honourably buried at the altar” were identified as those of Donelaitis⁵Adolfas Tautavičius, Iš archeologo užrašų, compiled by Gintautas Striška, Vilnius: Nacionalinis muziejus Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės valdovų rūmai, 2016, p. 80.. The remains were thoroughly studied by forensic specialists and anthropologists (Albinas Markulis, Gintautas Česnys); archaeologist and plastic reconstruction specialist Vytautas Urbanavičius conducted a documentary face reconstruction. Through the efforts of Lithuanian society the church was rebuilt in 1971-1979 and the Memorial Museum of Kristijonas Donelaitis was opened in it. In 1979, the remains of the writer were solemnly reburied in a special crypt built beneath the altar. Although there is still some doubt about the accuracy of the identification of the remains, the investigation itself was noted for its complexity and dissemination in society⁶For more see Kristijono Donelaičio palaikų tyrinėjimų medžiaga, Vilnius: Mokslas, 1981; Napalys Kitkauskas, Laimutė Kitkauskienė, Kristijono Donelaičio memorialas Tolminkiemyje, Vilnius: Kultūra, 2002; Žygimantas Augustinas, „Hibridinis kūnas/portretas“, Kūnas: ne laiku ir be vietos (series Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis, vol. 80-81), compiled by Gintautė Žemaitytė, Aušra Trakšelytė, Lina Michelkevičė, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2016, p. 197-203..

In 1969, thorough archaeological, architectural and geological investigations were carried out in the Vilnius Cathedral. With some intervals they lasted until 2004. The most intensive investigations were conducted during the period between 1984 and 1988, a number of crypts and burials were discovered and investigated at that time⁷Albinas Kuncevičius, Lietuvos viduramžių archeologija, Vilnius: Versus aureus, 2005, p. 93; Albertas Lisanka, 1984–1988 m. Vilniaus Katedroje vykdytų archeologinių tyrimų ataskaita: [the manuscript; preserved at the Library of Lithuanian Institute of History, f. 1, b. 1933-1938]..

Justina Poškienė